Editing Robert Alter

{{Short description|American professor}}
{{for|the hotelier|Robert Alter (hotelier)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox person/Wikidata | fetchwikidata=ALL|birth_date=1935}}
'''Robert Bernard Alter''' (born 1935)<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–Present: Chapter A|url=https://www.amacad.org/sites/default/files/media/document/2019-10/ChapterA.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=15 December 2020}}</ref> is an American professor emeritus of [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] and [[comparative literature]] at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], where he has taught since 1967.<ref>{{cite web|title=UC Berkeley Centre for Jewish Studies|url=https://jewishstudies.berkeley.edu/people/robert-alter/|access-date=2022-07-05}}</ref> He has published two dozen books, including an award-winning translation of the [[Hebrew Bible (Alter)|Hebrew Bible]] in 2018, which was twenty-four years in the making.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2019/01/14/684120470/after-24-years-scholar-completes-3-000-page-translation-of-the-hebrew-bible |title=After 24 Years, Scholar Completes 3,000-Page Translation Of The Hebrew Bible |website=npr.org |date=2019-01-14 |access-date=2025-05-04}}</ref>

==Biography==
Robert Alter was born in a Jewish American family, and first learned [[Hebrew]] as part of his religious upbringing.<ref>{{cite news |last1=York |first1=Hershael |title=Robert Alter's Landmark Work Sheds Fresh Light on Old Testament |url=https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/reviews/hebrew-bible-robert-alter/ |access-date=6 February 2025 |work=The Gospel Coalition |date=13 March 2019}}</ref> earned his bachelor's degree in English ([[Columbia University]], 1957) and his master's degree (1958) and doctorate (1962) from [[Harvard University]] in [[comparative literature]]. He started his career as a writer at ''[[Commentary Magazine|Commentary]]'', where he was for many years a contributing editor. He has written twenty-four books, including his three-thousand-page<ref name="Alter 2018">{{cite book|title=[[The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary]]|last=Alter|first=Robert|year=2018|publisher=WW Norton & Co|location=New York|isbn=978-0-393-29249-7}}</ref> translation of the entire [[Hebrew Bible]].<ref name="Alter 2018"/> He lectures on topics ranging from biblical episodes{{vague|date=August 2023}} to [[Kafka]]'s [[modernism]] and [[Hebrew literature]].

===Biblical studies===
One of Alter's contributions is the introduction of the [[type scene]] into contemporary [[scholar]]ly [[Hebrew Bible]] studies. An example of a type scene is that of a man meeting a young woman at a well, whom he goes on to marry; this scene occurs twice in [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]] and once in [[Book of Exodus|Exodus]], and, according to Alter, distortedly{{clarify|date=August 2023}} in [[1 Samuel]] and the [[Book of Ruth]].<ref>{{cite book|title=[[The Art of Biblical Narrative]]|last=Alter|first=Robert|year=1981|publisher=Basic Books|location=New York|isbn=0-465-00427-X|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780465004270/page/60 60]}}</ref>

===Honors===
Alter has served as an active member of the Council of Scholars of the [[Library of Congress]] and as the president of the [[Association of Literary Scholars and Critics]]. He was a [[Guggenheim fellow]] in 1966 and 1978.<ref>{{cite web|title=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation A Fellows Page|url=http://www.gf.org/afellow.html|access-date=2008-02-09 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071120102550/http://www.gf.org/afellow.html <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 2007-11-20}}</ref> He was elected a fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1986.<ref name=AAAS /> In 2001, he was elected a member of the [[American Philosophical Society]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Robert+Alter&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-10-19|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> He was a senior fellow of the [[National Endowment for the Humanities]], a fellow at the [[Israel Institute for Advanced Studies]] in [[Jerusalem]], and [[Andrew W. Mellon Foundation|Old Dominion]] fellow at [[Princeton University]]. He is a member of the [[editorial board]] of the ''[[Jewish Review of Books]]''.

==Selected Awards==
Alter is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. In 2009, he received the [[Robert Kirsch Award]] (''[[Los Angeles Times]]'') for lifetime contribution to American letters.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://berkeley.edu/news/in_news/archives/20090422.shtml |title=Poetic Master of Biblical Translation Receives Award |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |date=2009-04-22 |access-date=2009-05-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090509083513/http://berkeley.edu/news/in_news/archives/20090422.shtml |archive-date=9 May 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishjournal.com/arts/article/poetic_master_of_biblical_translation_receives_award_20090422/|title=Poetic Master of Biblical Translation Receives Award|work=Jewish Journal|date=2009-04-22|access-date=2009-05-08}}</ref> He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree by [[Yale University]] in 2010.<ref>{{cite web|title=Citations for Recipients of Honorary Degrees at Yale University 2010|url=http://news.yale.edu/2010/05/24/citations-recipients-honorary-degrees-yale-university-2010|website=Yale News|date=24 May 2010}}</ref> He is a Doctor Honoris Causa of [[Hebrew University]] (2015).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.igb.illinois.edu/article/director-receives-degree-honor-hebrew-university-90th-celebration|title=Director Receives Degree in Honor of Hebrew University 90th Celebration &#124; Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology}}</ref>

His book ''[[The Art of Biblical Narrative]]'' won the [[National Jewish Book Award]] for Jewish Thought.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wupa.wustl.edu/asmbly/bio/Alter |title=Robert Alter |publisher=Washington University in St. Louis |access-date=2009-05-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080704185718/http://wupa.wustl.edu/asmbly/bio/Alter |archive-date=4 July 2008 }}</ref> In 2005, his translation of the five Books of Moses won the PEN Literary Award for Translation.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://pen.org/literary-awards/literary-awards-winners-archive/ |title=Literary Awards Winners Archive}}</ref>

* Berkeley Citation (2010)<ref>{{cite web | url=https://awards.berkeley.edu/berkeley-citation/recipients | title=Berkeley Citation – Past Recipients &#124; Berkeley Awards }}</ref>

==Selected works==
;Translations of the Hebrew Bible
* ''The David Story: A Translation with Commentary of 1 and 2 Samuel'', 1999, [[W.W. Norton]], {{ISBN|0-393-32077-4}}
* ''The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary'', 2004, W.W. Norton, {{ISBN|0-393-01955-1}}
* ''The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary'', 2007, W.W. Norton, {{ISBN|978-0-393-06226-7}}
* ''The Book of Genesis'', translation by Robert Alter, illustrated by [[Robert Crumb|R. Crumb]], 2009, W.W. Norton (first edition, 1996), {{ISBN|0-393-06102-7}}
* ''The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes: A Translation with Commentary'', 2010, W.W. Norton, {{ISBN|0-393-06812-9}}
* ''Ancient Israel: The Former Prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings: A Translation with Commentary'', 2013, W.W. Norton, {{ISBN|0-393-08269-5}}
* ''Strong As Death Is Love: Song of Songs Ruth Esther Jonah And Daniel: A Translation with Commentary'', 2015, W.W. Norton, {{ISBN|0-393-24304-4}}
* ''[[The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary]]'', 2018, W.W. Norton, {{ISBN|0-393-29249-5}}

;Other works
* ''Rogue's Progress: Studies in the Picaresque Novel'', 1965, Harvard University Press
*''[https://books.google.com/books?id=b7jX29_p-5IC Partial Magic: The Novel as a Self-Conscious Genre]'', 1975, University of California Press, {{ISBN|0-520-02755-8}}
* [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674535756 ''A Lion for Love: A Critical Biography of Stendhal''], in collaboration with Carol Cosman, 1979, Basic Books, {{ISBN|0-465-04124-8}}
* ''[[The Art of Biblical Narrative]]'', 1981, [[Basic Books]], {{ISBN|0-465-00427-X}}
* [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674587625 ''Motives for Fiction''], 1984, [[Harvard University Press]], {{ISBN|978-0-674-58762-5}}
* ''The Art of Biblical Poetry'', 1985, Basic Books, {{ISBN|0-465-00431-8}}
* [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674875319 ''The Literary Guide to the Bible''] Edited by Alter and [[Frank Kermode]], 1987, Harvard University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-674-87531-9}}
* ''The Invention of Hebrew Prose: Modern Fiction and the Language Revolution'', 1988, University of Washington Press.
* ''Pleasures of Reading in an Ideological Age'', 1990, W.W. Norton, {{ISBN|0-393-31499-5}}
* [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674606630 ''Necessary Angels: Tradition and Modernity in Kafka, Benjamin, and Scholem''], 1991, Harvard University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-674-60663-0}}
* ''Imagined Cities: Urban Experience and the Novel'', 2005, Yale University Press, {{ISBN|0-300-10802-8}}
* ''Pen of Iron: American Prose and the King James Bible'', 2010, [[Princeton University Press]], {{ISBN|0-691-12881-2}}
* ''The Art of Bible Translation'', 2019, Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|978-0691181493}}
* ''Nabokov and the Real World: Between Appreciation and Defense'', 2021, [[Princeton University Press]], {{ISBN|0-691-21193-0}}
* ''[[Amos Oz]]: Writer, Activist, Icon'', 2023, Yale University Press, {{ISBN|0-300-25017-7}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://nes.berkeley.edu/Web_Alter/AlterCV.html CV on UCBerkeley's website]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20100530063305/http://assemblyseries.wustl.edu/bio/Alter.htm Biography at Washington University in St. Louis]
*[http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/11/01/041101crbo_books ''The Five Books of Moses'' review at ''The New Yorker'']
*[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52962-2004Oct21.html ''The Five Books of Moses'' review at ''The Washington Post'']
*[http://www.firstthings.com/article/2007/01/robert-alter8217s-fidelity-6 ''The Five Books of Moses'' review] by [[Alan Jacobs (academic)|Alan Jacobs]] in ''First Things'' (Aug/Sept. 2005)
*[http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2007/10/01/071001crbo_books_wood ''The Book of Psalms'' review at ''The New Yorker'']
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120508070823/http://radio.nationalreview.com/betweenthecovers/post/?q=MjgwYmVlZDdmNzFkOTQ5ODI1Yjk5OTM1ODk1NDE0ODc= Audio interview with Robert Alter]
*[http://www.lrb.co.uk/contributors/robert-alter Robert Alter's articles in the ''London Review of Books'']
*''The Hebrew Bible'', 3 vols., [https://www.momentmag.com/book-review-the-hebrew-bible-a-translation-with-commentary-3-vols-by-robert-alter/ reviewed] by [[Gary A. Rendsburg]] at Moment Magazine
*[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/genesis.htm Sample chapter] of Alter's translation of Genesis

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alter, Robert}}
[[Category:1935 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Columbia College (New York) alumni]]
[[Category:Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni]]
[[Category:University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:American biblical scholars]]
[[Category:Jewish American academics]]
[[Category:Translators of the Bible into English]]
[[Category:Jewish translators of the Bible]]
[[Category:Translators from Hebrew]]
[[Category:Hebrew–English translators]]
[[Category:American literary critics]]
[[Category:Bible commentators]]
[[Category:Old Testament scholars]]
[[Category:21st-century American Jews]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]
[[Category:People from Albany, New York]]